Me and my friend are both directors. I'm a director with a specialty in action and acting. He's a director that specializes in VFX.

We've been working on a project for two years. Our plan was to make a small budget movie in Asia.

I told him about a concept for a movie I wanted to act in and direct. I somehow let him be the director and I would be the lead. (Distribution aim was Amazon, iTunes, Netflix. We both already have connections for producers at each company.)

Dilemma:
I flew in a stunt man from Asia this past week. He has recently worked with training a B-List soap opera star from Korea and a martial arts viral Instagram girl.

I introduced my director friend to the stunt man. The stunt man was excited about our project and called the two pop star girls about us using them for the movie.

My director friend didn't seem to care about using them.

Until today.

We were talking about concepts. In the middle of the conversation, he said "I got it! Let's have the two girls star in it. And everyone will watch it!" I said "Oh, and I'm out of my own movie." He said "No, no you can still be one of the side characters."

Whoa. Just whoa.

Came out of nowhere.

I hope this was just a flight of ideas. He's a bit lost socially and doesn't get physical or emotion cues. Maybe that's it? He was throwing out ideas?

He hasn't directed anything before. He couldn't even complete his short without help.

He asked me to send the two girls contact information. Which I definitely will not do. We've been planning this movie for the past 2 years.

All of a sudden, he wants to replace me. I know this happens all the time in Hollywood, but you'd think the replacer might have actually directed or shot something before.

My friend could try contacting my stunt friend for the two famous contacts. But my stunt friend hates shady business and has had to deal with that a lot. So he probably wouldn't give my friend the contacts.

Honestly, sounds like you need to talk to him before asking our opinion. I see this a lot. People jump on the net when then need to make a call. Could be a misunderstanding, or worked out. If you are afraid to call him you shouldn't be working with him in the first place.

The formula for a film that "everyone will watch" isn't two women but rather a man and a woman.
You get some chemistry on the screen and you work that romance into whatever other plot you have going on.

I'd say it's a mistake to take both girls but you might want to consider taking one.

I've been in this exact situation. I stood up for myself, and You need to stand up for yourself.

You created this project for YOU to be the lead. It was not for Will Smith, it was not for the Rock, it was for YOU. Therefore you need to stand your ground and let your friend know how strongly you feel about this. The last thing you want is to end up hating your own movie. And if you let this stand you will regret it.

Now, that doesn't mean you can't find a way to include both actresses. Roles can be modified or expanded. There is nothing wrong with that. Nothing is off limits except your character.

Like indietalk says, you need to talk to him & find out exactly what he wants to do. If it doesn't go with what you want, it's up to you to compromise because you want his money, or part ways & find money elsewhere. If you decide to work with him, iron out All the details, get it all in a contract.

...............
Then again, my friend has come up with a lot of flight of ideas on the spot. He sounded serious about this one and it shocked me.

Or did just shock you, because it 'hurt' your ambition/idea?
And did that emotion cause the fear he is more serious about this idea on the flight than the other ones that didn't affect your part?

You need to talk to him instead let the internet speculate on your assumption.
Make up your mind about what you think is a good idea and what you don't like and use that as a starting point to get to a script that works for both of you.

It turned out to be a flight of ideas that he had. The reason why I freaked out was because he DID something like this once before and we really had to have a sit down to resolve the issue.

I think he realized he got wrapped up in his idea of having it star two pop stars. The original concept works for a single male protagonist, when you make it about two rival girls you're changing the story.

Another reason why his (flight of) idea wouldn't work: He would be getting an affordable rate on the two girls because of MY close connection. So in other words, if I'm not happy my link to Asia won't give him the contact numbers of the two performers.

All in all:
I jumped to a conclusion and freaked out because he had done something similar before. However, I do think it was good to think about (and prepare) because nothing is guaranteed in Hollywood. Even between two best friends.